Thousands of jobs at stake in competition for Marcellus Shale byproduct plant

Jan. 24, 2012

Written by

Amanda Iacone and Lawrence Messina

The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will fly to Houston this week as part of West Virginia's quest for a chemical plant that promises to deliver thousands of jobs, House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White told The Associated Press on Monday.

The Mingo County Democrat said his fellow delegates sought to aid that effort with Monday's ahead-of-schedule, nearly unanimous passage of Tomblin's tax break proposal meant to lure one or more "cracker" facilities. The bill advanced to the Senate.

"He will take that bill with him to Houston by the middle or the end of this week," White told AP. "I don't want to say the company, but everyone knows that Shell is the primary company we're courting right now."

Tomblin officials declined to comment. They've previously said that West Virginia is negotiating with Shell and a second, as-yet-undisclosed company that want to build a cracker plant in the Marcellus shale region. The U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC is based in Houston.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich also has reportedly visited Houston recently as his state competes with West Virginia and Pennsylvania to attract at least one of these plants.

A cracker plant converts a byproduct from Marcellus shale natural gas wells, ethane, into the widely used chemical compound ethylene. It is a key component for the plastics industry and also helps make a range of products including tires and antifreeze. With all three states hosting Marcellus shale wells, the industry says that these operations are yielding sufficient amounts of ethane to feed at least one cracker plant.

The American Chemistry Council has estimated that a West Virginia cracker would provide 8,000 construction related jobs followed by 12,271 permanent direct, indirect and induced jobs. The latter would result from increased consumer spending from the other jobs, the trade group estimates.

Tomblin's proposal would slash property taxes for 25 years for any business that invests at least $2 billion toward building a cracker.